“While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.” Mark 14:3
This woman came to Jesus and anointed Him with a very expensive ointment. For the fragrance to be released there had to be a breaking of the hard alabaster container. Jesus was impressed with this offering and made sure that it was recorded in the Holy Scripture for future generations.
We are also like these containers holding something very precious to God. This treasure is buried deep within our hearts, in our earthen vessels. The trouble is that hardness of heart can stop this fragrant gift from being released in all its fullness to God and those around us.
There are many reasons for this and the main one is from being hurt so often that we’ve put up a wall around ourselves for protection without realising it. It can also be from continual exposure to unbelief or sinful activity. The bible says that when we do something sinful for long enough it eventually sears our conscience, hardening our hearts.
In a sense it’s like those who play the guitar all the time. My wife has played since her youth and her fingertips have become hardened by the strings. If a ‘newbie’ like me started playing my fingertips get sore, but in time they too can become hardened.
We all have layers around our hearts when we come to Jesus, sort of like an onion, and as the layers are peeled away the fragrance of the precious ointment within comes out.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 2 Corinthians 4:7
Just as that jar needed to be broken, so do we need to be broken in order for the precious gift of His beautiful life within us to come out. The most expensive thing we can give to God is not our money but our surrendered lives.
Look at this verse verse about being broken.
“The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Psalm 51:17
The sacrifice God loves from us is brokenness. The world celebrates a successful person but doesn’t see the value of someone who is broken. But this is not so with God, for He sees beauty in brokenness. In nature its necessary for a seed to be broken in the earth in order for the plant to grow and break through the soil, bringing forth a harvest.
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24
Another good illustration is that of a thorough breed horse. It needs to be ‘broken in’, otherwise it can’t be used by its owner. It needs to come to the place where it will respond to the slightest tug of the master’s reign and respond to the master’s voice. God wants us to come to the place where we respond to His voice and not keep hardening our hearts. He wants us to come to the place where He can really use us, even responding to the smallest whisper.
“As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion." Hebrews 3:15
I was listening to the Prophet John Paul Jackson the other day and he was talking about listening to the Holy Spirit’s voice. If we are faithful in the small things God will us more – right. Sometimes John says he is walking along and the Lord will tell him to pick up some rubbish on the floor and put it in the rubbish bin. You might say. “I didn’t put it there why should I pick it up?” He obeys and knows it’s all part of his training to be used in bigger things. After listening to this I was walking along the pavement when I saw a $10 note on the ground. I felt challenged by the Lord to pick it up and put it in the letterbox next to me. That was a hard one.
I don’t think that God’s type of brokenness is talking about experiencing tragedy. Often when this happens people don’t draw closer to God but drift further away. Look at soldiers returning from WW2 and how they had ended up bitter towards God. It all boils down to how we respond to the many trials that come our way in life. Look at how the sun can melt a block of butter but the same sun can also harden clay. For some the trials of life soften them but to others it makes them hard.
True brokenness is when God strips away all your self-sufficiency so that we have no strength left to fix it up ourselves. It’s when God blocks every exit so that the only answer left is God. When God is all you have, actually God is all you really need. Look at this verse concerning the Sacrifice of Praise.
“Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.” Hebrews 13:15
God calls us to give a sacrifice of praise. That sounds to me like it’s something that isn’t easy. When there is a sacrifice, something always needs to die on somebodies alter. In this case we need to die to self, self-esteem, and self-interest. When your prayer for deliverance turns to praise you are on the way to success and you have given up the struggle and have surrendered to God.
Look at the example of Moses. He was strong in Egypt, but his strength was in his own wisdom and he ended up killing an Egyptian thinking it was a God thing, but ended up having to flee Egypt and live in the wilderness for 40 years. It was there in the wilderness that Moses was broken by God and became nothing. It was only after those 40 years that God was able to use him, for he had decreased so that God could increase him. The bible says that there was no one as humble as Moses in all the earth.
“(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)” Numbers 12:3
He had been broken and God was then able to use him for the next 40 years with miracles.
“This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness. “ Acts 7:35-36
In this whole area of sacrifice we need to realise that what God asks of one person may not necessarily be what He will ask of another. With the Rich young Ruler, Jesus told him to sell everything he had and give to the poor and come follow Him. Jesus didn’t say that to everyone.
The desires deep within our hearts are powerful and affect the rest of our lives.
“Above all else, guard your heart (desires), for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:20
Depending on what God is calling you too, He may ask you to give up certain things that are capturing your heart and affecting your ministry. If God is calling you to the sports scene and to be a witness for him there He won’t ask you to give it up for Him but He may do that for a person who is called to full time ministry.
“No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.” 2 Timothy 2:4-5
God wants us to be a living sacrifice, dying daily. He wants a people who are pliable in His hands. I always remember watching a skilled dog trainer putting his dog through the paces. Sometimes they would put a bowl of food in front of the dog and only allow them to eat it when they give the command. He wants to bring the dog to the place where he will only go when the trainer says go and only stop when he says stop. I believe the Holy Spirit is looking for a people like that in these days, its very precious to God.
Are you broken in this way? Will you allow Him to peel away the layers that you have put up to protect your heart so that the fragrance of Jesus can fill your life and all the places where you minister.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship.” Romans 12:1